Catalina’s First Islanders - For at least 8,000 years, Catalina Island was inhabited by Native Americans known as the Tongva or Gabrieliño. The latter name came from the San Gabriel Mission, where the Tongva labored for the Spanish colonists. Long before the invention of barges, ferries, planes or helicopters, an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 Tongva lived on the Island. Called Pimu or Pimungna by the Tongva, Catalina Island provided them with fresh water, plant materials, abundant marine life and rich mineral resources.

The Tongva lived in villages of extended family members that numbered from 50 to 100 individuals. Some of their largest settlements were at places that later were named Two Harbors, Avalon, Little Harbor, Empire Landing, White’s Landing and Toyon Bay. The families lived in thatched huts called ki’shes, which were framed from branches or whale bones and draped with mats made from reeds, grasses or animal hides. Father Antonio de la Ascensión, a passenger on the 1602 Spanish ship of explorer Sebastian Vizcaíno, who named the Island “Santa Catalina,” reported that these mats were so densely woven that “…neither rain nor the sun penetrates them.”

The Tongva were resourceful and manufactured goods from a variety of natural materials. They used rushes to create water bottles, tarred on the inside with asphaltum to prevent leaking. Baskets, mats, and skirts were woven from local plants and grasses. They made tools, weapons, jewelry and instruments from shells, stones and bones. Clay and minerals were used to create paints and dyes.

Ingenious in their use of natural resources, the Tongva developed an effective food system utilizing the Island’s flora and fauna. Men were responsible for hunting and fishing, while the women gathered seeds, nuts, roots, berries, acorns, mushrooms and other items. They judiciously managed the distribution of supplies, even to the point of banishing or executing a chief found guilty of mismanagement. To minimize any privileges for successful hunters and fishermen, these game gatherers were discouraged from eating their own kill. Rather, they were urged to contribute their catch to a communal supply.

Courtesy of the Runajambi Institute
A Tongva home, or ki’sh, was framed using willow branches or whale bones and then covered in tightly woven rushes or animal skins. A ki’sh housed anywhere from a single family to as many as 50 people.